Area has lowest unemployment rate in Ontario

A continuing drop in the number of people who say they have no job has put Brantford in a three-way tie for the lowest unemployment rate in Ontario.

In June, the area’s unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, down from 4.1 percent in May.

The provincial average rose to 5.5 percent and, in Canada, the national rate is 5.2 percent.

In Norfolk County, the unemployment rate is 4.5 percent, which is about the same as it was a year ago.

The local drop reflects a strong job market with companies expanding and plenty of construction, said Danette Dalton, the executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie.

“Yet, at the same time, the number of people not in the labor force, from students to older adults, is the highest in more than six months,” she added.

“There are many potential workers we need to engage with to get them participating.”

The planning board tracks those who are 15 and older but who aren’t in the labor force, meaning they were neither employed nor unemployed.

In June, that number was 40,400, up more than 5,000 from last December.

“Some of those people were working over the winter but aren’t now,” said Dalton. “It’s unclear why.”

The board also runs the Grand Erie Jobs site, the area’s largest online job board, and said there were more than 2,700 job vacancies last month.

With 4,500 active job postings in June, there were 1,500 employers on the board, looking to hire.

The job most in demand right now is for retail salespeople with transport truck drivers, material handlers and customer service representatives heavily advertised for as well.

There were multiple postings in education, from elementary school teachers to university lecturers.

With the lowest unemployment rate in Ontario, Brantford-Brant was tied with Kingston and Thunder Bay, all with the 3.9 percent statistic.

Nearby communities had higher rates, including Guelph, at 4.2 percent, Hamilton at 5 percent and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge at 6.2 percent.

While Canada’s employment rate went up by 60,000 people last month, the jobless rate also went up to 5.4 percent because more people were looking for work.

Similarly, in Ontario, employment went up by 56,000 while the unemployment rate increased slightly to 5.7 percent.

The Workplace Planning Board is one of 26 non-profit organizations that play a leadership role in labor force planning. The board is funded, in part, by the federal and provincial governments.

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